Selfish roo?

[wildeflowers]

We have a Golden Polish Roo currently with one hen. (I have more chicks on the way.) I think they are about 16 or 17 weeks. He is just starting to get into full roo mode. IDK, he just seems more "grown up" the past couple of weeks. He paced the fence a bit when my dog was sniffing about, and pecked at her. Voice is starting to change. He just has that look in his eye, if you know what I mean.

I've been noticing when I give them treats however, that he is not very considerate, if that's the word, lol. He doesn't let our girl have the treats first, he certainly doesn't call her over, and today when I brought them a celery treat, he raced over to get at it first. Then when I shooed him away to let the hen get in there, he grabbed a large piece and took it to the other side of the run.

Our hen is very quiet and mild mannered, and very attached to him, but it seems like he could care less about her. So typical, right? Maybe she should read, He's Just Not That Into You, lol. But I am just wondering, will he grow into being more considerate? Or is this a sign that he's not going to be a very good caretaker? I personally like him a lot, but if I'm going to have a roo at all, I'd like one that is not a slacker and is great at his duties.

 

[Kittymomma]

He could and probably will get better. I have some that stayed selfish, well I had some--they tasted GOOD! Most of them go thru a selfish teenager stage though so I wouldn't worry about it too much just yet. If he's still being a jerk in another couple of months then I'd say that he'll stay that way, but he'll probably outgrow it and start opening doors and pulling out chairs for the ladies.

I've only had one that was sweet to the girls as a teen, he's still pretty rough when trying to mate but always calls the girls over for treats and even brings treats to my egg eating EE hen that is in chicken jail next to the teenagers home range. I wasn't planning on keeping him (had a bad roo/hen ratio once and won't ever do that again!) but he's so good at watching out for the girls and finding them treats that he's earned one of the roo spots on the farm.